Honey, you're killing me!

hallothis is my second post here and also long time since the last one!

I drink a lot of tea. green mostly (recently). with honey (a one full spoon for one big cup of tea).and becouse I drink it so much everyday, poeple around have of course noticed it and there have been some friends that say:

- that the tea is bad for the liver.- that a couple (from 2,3 - 7, it depends) spoons of honey added to tea, each day isn't healthy- that adding honey to a still hot tea kills all the good stuff in the honey becouse of the temperature.off course i drink other types of tea. fruit ones, earl grey etc.

my question is how to make tea correctly and is anything that's mentioned above truth? do I drink too much tea or it does'nt matter? Any tips about tea drinking?

thank you for all the comments and tips.it would be very nice if anybody helps me at this one.M.xoxoxo

Last edited by Blue ipomea on Apr 15th, '07, 14:59, edited 1 time in total.

I was under the impression that Honey was amazing for you, like bee pollen...and i've read quite a few herb books that point it out.
particular good for those with allergies if the honey consumed is from their native area

First, the honey: Now I don't know a lot about honey, but from what I understand is that it is good and bad for you. Bad, because natural and homeopathic as it may be, it is still sugar. Good because it is homeopathic and natural so better for you than sugar. If you are looking for an alternative to honey, I would recommend agave nectar, as it has a milder taste than honey, and, in my own opinion, will not overpower the taste of your green tea.

Second, bad for your liver? I've never heard this before. Tea is great for you; the only things that can make it bad is what you put in it (2 tsp of sugar per cup + 6-8 cups a day = a lot of sugar).

Last, the right way: The "right" way is whichever way makes you the happiest. However, there are a few things that most serious tea drinkers seem to agree on.

1) Don't microwave your water if you can help it. Proper temperature is very important.

2) Don't use tea bags. 9.5 times out of 10 the tea in tea bags is just crap. Tea bags and tea balls don't leave enough room for the leaves to expand. If you want the "best" results, loose leaf tea is the way to go.

Honey is basically carbs..too many carbs, unless you are burning them, is bad. But at least honey is usually unprocessed sweetener, which is good!!! But the honey can have contaminants in it too. If the bees collect honey from heavily treated farm land, those chems could find their way into the honey, just my guess.

I love honey, but just not in my tea, except when I make my green tea with honey iced tea...

Just had to add my bit... I do enjoy a wee bit of honey in my black teas (the color is important here so stay w/me) and thought that, naturally, I would like it in my greens as well. Surprisingly, when I added the honey, almost immediately, my lovely green tea turned... wait for it... black! I tried using different types of spoons, thinking there must be some chemical reaction going on, as the tea tasted metallic after. Anyway, after nothing changed, I rang the 800 number on the container. The woman on the other end was very helpful and explained that, towards the bottom of the honey container, pollen will settle and concentrate and that that was what was changing the color. Of course, I would never notice in my black teas, but in the greens it was amazing. I am careful about where the honey is in the container before I add it to my green iced teas now, and don't add unless it's at the 1/2 full or more (this is where 1/2 full or 1/2 empty really matters).

oh thank you for all your comments. they've been very helpfull. I think I should start to think over how much do I actually use the honey everyday. It's carbs after all and who would like an overdose of that? And second you're complete right about the loose tea, it taste much better I just need right equipment. tea huggs for all tea lovers xoxoxoM.

tea knitter wrote:Just had to add my bit... I do enjoy a wee bit of honey in my black teas (the color is important here so stay w/me) and thought that, naturally, I would like it in my greens as well. Surprisingly, when I added the honey, almost immediately, my lovely green tea turned... wait for it... black! I tried using different types of spoons, thinking there must be some chemical reaction going on, as the tea tasted metallic after. Anyway, after nothing changed, I rang the 800 number on the container. The woman on the other end was very helpful and explained that, towards the bottom of the honey container, pollen will settle and concentrate and that that was what was changing the color. Of course, I would never notice in my black teas, but in the greens it was amazing. I am careful about where the honey is in the container before I add it to my green iced teas now, and don't add unless it's at the 1/2 full or more (this is where 1/2 full or 1/2 empty really matters).

It never happend to me ^^I didn't knew that even where in the container honey comes from will matter at all!

Honey is a healthy sweetener, but yes it still converts to sugars in the body so too much is a bad thing of course. I like apitherapy myself and use pollen and propolis - although not in tea! I'd like a different sweetener since I always need sweetened drinks and I drink volumes daily, but a lot of the healthy stuff like Stevia is too expensive! I cant stand artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and refuse to touch that crap, it's worse than sugar in a lot of ways. Licorice root is great but not something to drink all the time either. So...sigh